New: e-on Software VUE & PlantFactory 2023 Now Available

e-on Software has released new versions of VUE and PlantFactory.  With this release, Creator receives all the features which were formerly exclusive to the Professional & Enterprise solutions!  VUE 2023 introduces a complete graph and node editing overhaul, a GGX model for material highlights and Redshift conversion for 3ds Max, while PlantFActory 2023 adds vertex colors and new Ambient Occlusion, nested repeats, a mesh cutout editor for atlases and major workflow enhancements.

What’s new in VUE 2023

The 2023 release adds tremendous QoL changes to the Function Editor, shader conversion for Redshift in 3D Studio Max, new nodes, GGX reflections across all material types and feature parity between VUE Creator & Professional / Enterprise.

Newly supported host application versions for the VUE integration plugins are Maya 2023, 3DS Max 2023 and Cinema 4D S26 & 2023.

Supported render engines are all builds of V-Ray 6 & V-Ray 5, all builds of Arnold, Renderman 24 and all Redshift builds starting from 3.0.46.

This release has even more in store for Creator users: Creator now includes the same feature set as Professional. This means you can now export your PlantFactory plants as meshes for other applications than VUE and you get access to the PlantFactory integration plugins.

Please note that with this feature parity between the versions now being in place, anything created with the Creator version is limited to non-commercial use only.

Main features in Release 2023:

• Cutout mesh editor for atlas maps
• Vertex colors and Ambient Occlusion
• Nested repeats
• Meshing and subdivision surface improvements
• Instance support for lightweight plant creation
• Complete node and graph overhaul
• Unreal Engine 5 plugin
• Consolidation of presets and toolbars

This release adds additional plugin compatibility for the following host application versions and render engines (bold items are new):

• 3D Studio Max 2016 to 2023
• Maya 2015 to 2023
• Cinema4D R20 to 2023
• Redshift material conversion (starting from 3.0.46) in Maya 2020 and above, Cinema 4D R23 and above and 3D Studio Max 2022 and above
• Unreal Engine 5 to 5.1
• V-Ray 6 and below in Maya, 3D Studio Max and Cinema 4D

Feature Parity In Creator

Creator now includes the same feature set as Professional / Enterprise:

• Unlimited render size
• Multipass & G-Buffer rendering
• Complete export options, including
• Full scene export with EcoSystems
• HDRI and panoramic sky export
• Cloud export as OpenVDB & NanoVDB
• Material baking
• Export of any type of mesh object (terrains, rocks, hyperblobs, primitives, splines, plants, EcoSystems)
• Import and export of camera data / motion tracking information
• Python console and API
• Live link to ZBrush through the GoZ bridge
• All integration plugins for 3DS Max, Maya, CInema 4D and Lightwave with scene creation tools and conversion options for Redshift, Arnold, V-Ray and Renderman
• Live link to Nvidia Omniverse through the VUE connector and Nucleus

Please note that with this feature parity between versions being in place, anything created with the Creator version is limited to non-commercial use only.

Massive QoL Updates for the Function Editor

This release finalizes the node and graph overhaul we began in the previous release. Search for nodes in the graph, for parameters inside of nodes, used nodes in the graph and highlight node categories of choice. Create graphs faster than ever with new connection handling and drag and drop support for images.

Redshift Material Creation for 3ds Max

The VUE integration plugin for 3ds max can now create materials for Redshift 3.0.46 and up. Redshift material creation is supported in 3ds Max 2022 and above.

The plugin offers a choice between materials with a regular alpha channel and materials that utilize Redshift’s unique sprite node, which we highly recommend for best rendering performance.

GGX Reflection Model Across All Material Types

Highlights and reflections are now consistent across all material types, atmosphere models and render engines thanks to the new GGX reflection model.

Especially in photometric atmospheres, this provides drastically improved highlight rendering without the overexposed results with the legacy phong model.

Spectral Clouds Sync to Omniverse and NanoVDB export

VUE will now also sync cloud layers as part of the scene sync with Nvidia Omniverse through Nucleus.
Additionally, clouds can now be exported as lightweight NanoVDB clouds which run particularly well on GPU.

What’s new in PlantFactory 2023

PlantFactory 2023 adds vertex colors and new Ambient Occlusion, nested repeats, a mesh cutout editor for atlases and major workflow enhancements.

This is one of the biggest PlantFactory releases we have ever had, filled to the brim with new modeling features, workflow and QoL improvements and export and integration enhancements.

This release has even more in store for Creator users: Creator now includes the same feature set as Professional. This means you can now export your PlantFactory plants as meshes for other applications than VUE and you get access to the PlantFactory integration plugins.

Please note that with this feature parity between the versions now being in place, anything created with the Creator version is limited to non-commercial use only.

Main features in Release 2023:

• Cutout mesh editor for atlas maps
• Vertex colors and Ambient Occlusion
• Nested repeats
• Meshing and subdivision surface improvements
• Instance support for lightweight plant creation
• Complete node and graph overhaul
• Unreal Engine 5 plugin
• Consolidation of presets and toolbars

This release adds additional plugin compatibility for the following host application versions and render engines (bold items are new):

• 3D Studio Max 2016 to 2023
• Maya 2015 to 2023
• Cinema4D R20 to 2023
• Redshift material conversion (starting from 3.0.46) in Maya 2020 and above, Cinema 4D R23 and above and 3D Studio Max 2022 and above
• Unreal Engine 5 to 5.1
• V-Ray 6 and below in Maya, 3D Studio Max and Cinema 4D

New cutout leaf node

Create custom meshes with the new cutout leaf node by placing points on an underlying texture. This is a must-have feature for working with atlas maps and for creating vegetation for games.

Post-processing options: Vertex colors with Ambient Occlusion

PlantFactory now supports vertex colors as a post-processing effect once the final mesh has been computed. With vertex colors, you can store different pieces of information directly in the mesh upon export. Each vertex gets a color value assigned which can be interpreted and used in the target application in different contexts. For example, you can store a weighing factor between 0 and 1 for Ambient Occlusion strength (which will be mapped to a greyscale value between 0 and 255 RGB) to bake AO information without requiring a baked texture.

Nested repeats with loop nodes

Building loops with iteration nodes has always been one of the most powerful methods for modelling trees. In this release, the capabilities have been extended tremendously through nested loops. You can now setup repeats within repeats. For example, create the branching structure of side offsprings first with a loop, then take this loop and place it as a bifurcation split on itself.

Meshing and subdivision surface algorithm enhancements

Meshing has received multiple improvements, most of them related to subdivision surface blending. All meshing parameters in segment nodes have been moved to a separate meshing tab.

Subdivision surface blending is now available in all meshing modes (previously, it only worked with quad meshing).

Instantiation node for instance export

The new instantiation node replaces individual geometry primitives with lightweight instances upon export. PlantFactory will generate a point cloud onto which copies of the geometry will be placed as instances.

A completely redesigned graph workflow experience

Continuing the node and graph editing improvements from the last release, we finalized the graph and node editing overhaul. Now you can work faster and more efficiently in the graph than ever before, which will speed up your daily workflow tremendously.

Unreal Engine 5 plugin

The PlantFactory integration plugin is now available for both Unreal Engine 4 and Unreal Engine 5. Load your procedural plants in *.tpf format into Unreal, customize them within the plugin and then convert them with native Unreal materials to static or animated actors in *.FBX format.

Heads up: Consolidation of presets and toolbars

As part of ongoing development and improvement of the UI, the following features have been deprecated:

• The simple workspace is no longer available and the advanced workspace is now the default one.
• As a consequence of the removal of the basic workspace, the “Getting started” panel and the “Info panel” were removed as well.
• The preset toolbar and preset nodes have been removed (e.g. branches, trunk, twig, stem, palm nodes). These presets were mere copies of the “Advanced Segment” node and did not contribute to the user experience properly because of their strange look and the unnecessary duplication of an existing node. We plan to bring back a preset system for selecting presets within a node itself in a future release, but without duplicating existing nodes in the node list. For now, we recommend using the component system for creating, saving and loading node presets.

Old scenes using preset nodes can still be loaded and edited without restrictions, but the deprecated nodes can no longer be used in new scenes.